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Côte d'Ivoire: Ivorian New Forces Spokesman Says Gbagbo Must Go, Accra Summit Failed

Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

14 November 2003

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interview

London — West African leaders - including Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo - gathered for an emergency summit on Cote d’Ivoire in Ghana on Tuesday. The objective was to try to get the faltering peace process back on track. But the Accra meeting ended inconclusively, except for a call by the heads of state of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) for the United Nations to take over the regional peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire.

The former rebels - known as the New Forces - were not represented at the Accra talks. So how do they feel about the outcome of the summit? To find out more, on the line from London allAfrica’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton called up the New Forces spokesman, Sidiki Konate of the MPCI, who was on a private visit to neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Sidiki Konate, what is your assessment of the Cote d’Ivoire summit held in Accra this week?

Accra was a failure, yet Accra should have been the moment of hope and the solution to the deadlock in the Ivorian crisis. Accra should have been the opportunity to kick start the peace process. But Accra failed and the reason for this failure was not the fault of the heads of state of the region. The fault lies fairly and squarely at the door of Mr Gbagbo Laurent. He is responsible for the failure.

Why do you describe the Ecowas mini summit in Accra as a failure?

Because the meeting in Accra did not give a good result, because we had all hoped that this meeting could help save the situation in Cote d’Ivoire. But, according to what we heard, Gbagbo Laurent tried to avoid discussing the important questions which are blocking the Cote d’Ivoire peace process. So this meeting was not successful because Mr Gbagbo Laurent did not allow it to be.

Accra should have discussed the deadlock in the Cote d’Ivoire peace process that we’re all aware of. The idea was to get over this hurdle, this impasse, in Accra. All the stakeholders knew that. It should have been the opportunity for Mr Gbagbo Laurent to propose something concrete, because he is solely responsible for the current deadlock. But he didn’t - in the presence of all those heads of state. That’s why the summit in Accra failed.

So we are very sad for Cote d’Ivoire and today we are of the opinion that, with Mr Gbagbo Laurent, there can never be peace in Cote d’Ivoire.

Of course, we weren’t there in Accra, but from what we understand, the heads of state left the meeting totally let down by their Ivorian counterpart who just doesn’t seem to care and is just determined to continue with this unworkable situation.

So everyone is disappointed, everyone feels let down - including the heads of state - for Cote d’Ivoire and for African diplomacy and Mr Gbagbo Laurent is responsible for all of this.

We invite the international community, the United Nations, America, France and all African organisations to ask Gbagbo to leave power, like Charles Taylor in Liberia. Mr Gbagbo has to go and to allow Cote d’Ivoire to find peace.

So should we take it that the Forces Nouvelles are not prepared to go back to Abidjan and take up your posts again in the government?

We will rejoin the government when the reasons for us pulling out of the government are addressed.

And when might that be?

The issue is to change Cote d’Ivoire. We will return to the government - but only a government envisaged by the Linas-Marcoussis ((French-brokered) peace accord. That’s the issue.

For the past six to eight months, this government has not had the authority to do its work properly. Don’t forget, Madam, that the Linas-Marcoussis peace deal that we all agreed gave us the chance to resolve the Ivorian crisis. The spirit of that accord was power sharing. Mr Gbagbo Laurent has not allowed that to happen in the national reconciliation government. He has failed to respect the spirit of this accord and the government has not been able to implement the programme of the Linas-Marcoussis peace deal which should lead to free and democratic elections.

But Mr Gbagbo Laurent has violated the accord. He behaves as if he is still in control of the whole of Cote d’Ivoire, as if there has been no war and as if his party did not sign any agreement on his behalf in Paris.

Now the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has appealed to you, the New Forces, to rejoin the power sharing government and to negotiate within the government to give peace a chance Cote d’Ivoire.

Madam, you can’t say that hasn’t been done, that we haven’t given it a go. But remember that we joined this government under conditions that no other rebellion in the world would have agreed to. Even the security of our ministers was not guaranteed, that issue had not been resolved. We joined the government because Mr Gbagbo Laurent promised in Accra - in the presence of President John Kufuor (Ecowas chairman) - that he was going to issue a decree that would transfer power to the prime minister, Seydou Diarra. But did he do it? He did not.

So, it’s not a question of going back to the government. The question is why we left the government. We left because the government - which is meant to be a national reconciliation government - does not have the powers accorded to it by the agreement of Linas-Marcoussis. And it cannot work easily, because of Mr Gbagbo Laurent. So we left the government in order to find solutions. The prime minister was meant to get power, but he hasn’t got this power.

Either we just swan around in a government in big luxury cars and Cote d’Ivoire does not progress or change, or we decide to withdraw from this government to make everyone aware of our ultimate objective - which is to respect the Linas-Marcoussis accord. I mean, this government is a joke, where ministers did not even have the authority to change their personnel. I mean, look at what went on at the RTI (Radio Television Ivoirienne). This was a government where ministers did not even have the power to appoint their financial directors.

This was a government where, I tell you, the ministers were living in a limbo almost, like condemned men, unable to implement any programmes. We in the New Forces cannot be a party to this sham.

We pledged to the Ivorian people that we would to help to change this country that has been destroyed by wrong headed people with evil intent. So we cannot remain in a government and leave the country in the same state as which we found it before 19 September 2002 (the date the rebellion and attempted takeover were launched). The other side simply does not want to work.

We will go back when we are sure that the security problems for our ministers are definitely resolved. All we know today is that there is no security in Abidjan. There are all these young people working for Mr Gbagbo Laurent and they are working to kill the opposition, they are working to make terror in Abidjan. European investments are working to kill the peace process. So we need to solve the security problem. If these problems are resolved, we will be able to go back to the government.

On your security concerns, the Accra summit on Tuesday decided that 80 security personnel were going to be dispatched to provide protection for all Cote d’Ivoire ministers...

The problem is not that we should get more security from outside. The problem is to have a system that takes care of the people. But today the ministers of defence and security are not the consensus choice. Mr Gbagbo Laurent chose these two people and these two persons are working for Mr Gbagbo Laurent. We have to go back to the Accra procedure which said that the ministers should be chosen by common consensus. So we have to solve this problem first.

If today we have the defence and security ministers chosen by consensus, then we would resolve the other security questions we have now.

So is this issue of the defence and security ministers going to hold up the peace process and what about the appeal for UN blue helmet peacekeepers to replace the regional peacekeeping mission?

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